H'bad Metro Rail project to be delayed

By Vishwanath Pilla & Arvind Sukumar, CNBC-TV18

The Hyderabad metro rail project of Rs 10,000 crore is likely to be further delayed as none of the Consortiums bidding for the project met the deadline.

There is still time to go before people will get respite from the traffic in Hyderabad. The 72 km Hyderabad Metro Rail project, which has been touted as the second biggest project in Asia after Shanghai Metro, is likely to be delayed. That is because the deadline for the financial bids was July 4 and not one of the five consortiums filed the bid.

The work was supposed to begin in August but it seems highly unlikely now. But Metro Rail authorities are confident that financial bids will come in by the month end.

NVS Reddy, MD, Hyderabad Metro Rail, said, “"After resolving all the issues, now they have gone back to their boards. All these people would like to get their boards' final order. They said a project of this magnitude requires at least four months time. So, we have postponed."

The five consortiums include Essar, Seimens, Bombardier, GVK and Maytas. Sources say the consortiums may have decided to defer their bids due to inflationary concerns. The project that was initially estimated to cost around Rs 8,500 crore has now escalated to almost Rs 10,000 crore.

Essar Constructions confirmed that it had asked at least 1.5-2 months to submit the bid, since there have been a number of changes in the technical as well as financial specifications.

NVS Reddy, MD, Hyderabad Metro Rail, said, “ We don’t give much importance to Inflationary pressures. It does impact the project but more than that it is the conditional clauses in the concessional agreement and shareholder agreement of which they are more concerned. Where the price is concerned, it is a price discovery method and there is no cap as such."

The proposed Metro rail will operate in three routes covering 63 stations. Though HMR officials assure that the project is on track, sources say land acquisition troubles is far from over In Hyderabad.